Aftermath.The Chronicles of Narnia. G."Well, I suppose any person, even a very strong one, might suffer a breakdown when struck with such a blow."

She is a very graceful girl, that Miss Susan, and if you'd watch her wander the gardens and sing those pretty songs of hers, you'd scarce believe she belongs in a place like this. But then you look in her eyes and you see the hollow in them, and you know that perhaps she does.

What happened to her is just terrible, losing all her family like that. I gather she was fairly close to her siblings, or had been, she mutters to herself of the fairytales they made up as children and how she misses them. What strikes me as so very remarkable is that she hasn't taken refuge in those childhood dreams, an escape from the horrible things in her life.

She never once took refuge in delusion, which gives the doctors hope, especially as we all watch her get stronger every day. Well, I suppose any person, even a very strong one, might suffer a breakdown when struck with such a blow. She'll be on her feet again, soon enough.

I do wonder, sometimes, for if you catch her eyes in the light you see more than just the hollow her family left in her soul. There's something else, another pain, but then she'll move and it's not there anymore. Dr. Dyson gave me the oddest look when I tried to ask him if he'd ever seen it in her before, and he muttered of the fancies of women. Well, I was quite offended and he's not had a hot meal in a week because of it. It's not my imagination and I thought that the doctors ought to know about it if they expect her to make a full recovery.

Sometimes, I do wonder about doctors. All textbooks and knowledge and not a lick of sense among them. I suppose that's what they have us nurses for.